The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-06

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positions should let shorthand alone.
The shorthand writer. like the
! typical newspaper man, wants to
! have the widest intelligence possillr
to know something about everv~
thing, at least enough to know what
Is talked about. For not only mer>
chants an / lawyers, but physicians
editors and literary men, to say no.
hing of politicians, are coming to
ind the services Of shorthand
writer Of great use IN their profess
sions. And to be of use be must be
man who takes things at a word.
who knows a geographical name or
character in history or fiction when
he hears it, without stopping to ask
what that word was, and b1therinG
to have it spelt--a process which
goes to drive the principal debating
out of his senses. The secretar,
needs such keen and close attention
as to catch the direction and the ex-
act words without having to utter
that irritating 'Whatf every ten
minutes or Oft8ner, breaking the
thread of thought and wasting time
when his express business Is to make
the most of 1t FIR an owe, weiy he'd
principal whose moments are pres
cious.Then,a as corresponding clerk or
secretary, be must have the forms of
good business address at command
SO that be can put curt directions in
to courteous and well-turned phrase
An order worth thousands hay be
lost the house by too stiff tone,
the offensive independence of a
phrase, or one which has something
over polite or solicitous about it.
L want man. SAID a 30 ,ton
merchant, asking for a stenographer.
" uo IAH tdho NY lHCa III GuIeS "OluS
and put it into shape in a letter.
neatly written. spaced and directed.
Ii can get such man he's sure of
a good place as long as Pm going
But the clever head of a reference
office he applied to could only shake
his head and say IF we had twenty
such men they would all fad places
tomorrow and as many the day
after
A keen business man of wide eX~
perlenee in many kinds of work
says The trouble with three fourths
of the young men and girls who
learn shorthand and type writing is
they don't know anything. They
expect to get along by knowing
their own branch, and nothing else.
and it is no u'e. You get clever
girl as a type>wrlter--One who can
rattle off eighty words of the De-
ciarat!On of Independence a minute,
or Long fellows Psalm of Life or
anything she knows by heart-and
set her down to write business let
ter from ict4tiOn, and she has TO
stop and turn her machine up every
three lines to see If size has spelled 8
"crd right. 1t put me out and
makes the mail late. Or she lets it
60 with blunder that would dis
grace an infant scholar, and there
time to write it over. Some>
lsn'p
IT,. = batch Of a morning
ho. 70 is a.,na ax6r F | happen to
say Buenos Ayres, she Is nn.-
know what heathen /
I'm naming, and must write it out .
before she knows What it meant, and .
woul floor her for
ever. That's for business. Now. !
If I'm debating on time for my paper |
not a minute TO spare and 1t ism |
the least matter how it looks, and |
the proof+reaaer minds the spelling, |
ten to one she'll have her eraser out |
every other line to correct some !
f4ncled blenish, and you can't get 1t !
into her head or her e ther, that all
YOU want is to drive ahead and get
that manuscript jerked sp TO the
printers in fifteen seconds. That's
what | call want Of intelligence.
And out of two hundred young men
ard women We tried to fit for type~
writer secretaries, there were not
five [ should call good ones. who
could be trusted to write a letter
without some shabby blunder III
spe ling or phrase
Il is no uncommon thing to find a
sIort>hand writer unable to- make
out his own report, from the same
cause that render a tyye-wrlters
copy incoherent, the want of a haOit
of fixed attention.. In lack Of this
dots. dashes aad words 60 wild. Il
is good training for either work to
learn long passages of any author by
heart, in the exact words Of the text.
t7king no more than Ole can correct
" remember at q time, repeating